03/11/2026
From a council house kid to national centre lines!! 🙌❤️
An off-the-cuff comment recently, referring to growing up in a council house as though it were something to be ashamed of, got me thinking.
As a child, my mum worked several dead-end, low-paid jobs to put a roof over my head, keep us warm and, most importantly, make sure she could still afford my weekly riding lesson at Masarella’s – somewhere I still go for training today.
From the age of six, I knew I needed to ride horses. It all started after a trip to Cleethorpes to ride the donkeys. My mum was left absolutely mortified when I’d somehow managed to untie my donkey from the others and take off down the beach, with the owner flailing and shouting behind me, while I confidently responded with, “Don’t worry, I can ride!” 😂
Between my mum and grandad, they somehow managed to club together enough money to pay for weekly lessons, in all weathers. Eventually, they even managed to loan me a Welsh B pony called Elkie, who was stabled at the end of our road.
Little did I know that pony would be the starting point for my eventual career in breaking and training young horses and ponies. She certainly taught me resilience, if nothing else, throwing me off weekly, usually into the same patch of nettles! But we persevered, and she taught me so much.
I’d always known I wanted to work with horses, so school never really seemed particularly relevant to the plans I had in my head. I left with very few GCSEs and went straight into working with horses full-time.
Fast forward a few years and I took the leap into working for myself – something I’d always dreamed of. That council house kid, with very little money and never a professionally produced pony in sight, eventually found herself working seven days a week to fit everyone in and earning a good living doing something she absolutely loves. 🙌
But here’s the real point of this post.
With the cost of absolutely everything in the equestrian world continuing to skyrocket – lessons, hay, bedding, livery, riding wear and everything else that comes with owning or caring for a horse – I’m becoming increasingly aware of just how inaccessible riding is becoming for many families on lower incomes.
And that genuinely makes me sad.
There are children out there who could have a lifetime of happiness, confidence, friendships and opportunities through horses, but who may never get that chance simply because their families can’t afford it.
I will be forever grateful to my mum,Nan and grandad for the sacrifices they made to give me the opportunity to follow my dreams. They probably had no idea just how much those weekly lessons would shape my future.
I certainly don’t think the 11-year-old version of me, being peeled out of the nettles for the fifth time in an hour, ever imagined she’d one day be trotting down the centre line at a national final! 😂🙌
